Otago-born, raised and educated, Ms Hellyer (36) established public relations, marketing and design company Glow five years ago.
Since then, the company has assisted more than 50 businesses and organisations throughout New Zealand.
While work was mainly based in Dunedin, it recently extended to gaining a contract in the United Kingdom.
As well as running a business, Ms Hellyer has also managed to juggle a busy family life as mother to Neva (7) and 3-year-old twins Emily and Isla.
The twins were born just two years into the establishment of Glow but their arrival failed to slow her down.
''You can't stop when you're running your own business,'' she said.
She cited ''incredible support'' from her family, especially husband Gavin Bertram, along with loyal, supportive and hard-working staff.
The couple have been together 15 years. They met when he was editor of the University of Otago's Critic magazine and she was working for Planet Media.
The key to making everything work was to be ''ridiculously well organised'' - ''and that works 90% of the time'', she said, laughing.
''I'm pretty driven and this is what I want to do, so this is what I'm doing. I'm really big on balance and getting to spend quality time with all of the kids individually. I'm working towards getting that balance,'' she added.
She knew the lifestyle in Auckland would be fast-paced and she did not want that for her children.
She also wanted Dunedin to be a place her daughters did not want to leave to have a ''really good career''.
Prior to the couple returning to Dunedin, with their eldest daughter in 2007, Ms Hellyer worked for architecture and design practice Jasmax in Auckland.
She was marketing and communications manager and the first non-architectural staff member to be made an associate.
It was while at Jasmax that she started getting involved in public relations, with two of the major projects she worked on being the launch of Britomart and the new Auckland City Hospital.
Returning to Dunedin, Ms Hellyer was marketing manager for Tamahine Holdings. When that company closed, it provided an opportunity to start Glow and the business was launched with one public relations contract.
In the ensuing five years, the business had grown exponentially, which she attributed to ''good work, good results and good reputation''.
She was alone in the business until the arrival of the twins, which coincided with the move into office space in the Imperial Building, overlooking Queens Gardens.
She had long admired the corner upstairs office and she was ''so lucky'' to work from an amazing space.
When she first moved in, Glow was the only tenant but numbers had since grown to more than 12 businesses and there was a ''really supportive little community'' in the building.
Glow now had another full-time staff member and two part-time employees.
Glow is a full service agency covering strategy, media planning, creative development, graphics and public relations.
Clients range from architects and manufacturers to councils and health organisations, and include Escea, Oritain, ADInstruments, Dunedin City Council, University of Otago and Tourism Dunedin.
Much work had been done over the past 12 months to raise Dunedin's profile. Glow had been able to assist the city with marketing through its ''The Little Black Book of Dunedin Business'', as well organising national media coverage for local businesses.
''We get a real kick out of being involved helping these businesses grow their business,'' she said.
Working with communications adviser Claire Grant, the team met more than 90 businesses and support agencies to build a solid understanding of the business terrain in Dunedin.
When Ms Hellyer moved back to Dunedin from Auckland, she realised large numbers of people were doing ''really cool things'' but were largely hidden, which was where the Hidden Dunedin campaign came from - the aim being to show people things in the city they would not ordinarily find on their own.
Businesses often did not want to ''put their hands up'', she said, and the Black Book, which highlighted some of the business talent in the city, had made that more acceptable. As well as instilling local pride, it had also created national awareness.
Glow worked with the DCC to launch the economic development strategy, including directing a film about business in Dunedin and hosting visiting business media.
Through its public relations work, for both the DCC and private companies, it aimed to raise the profile of the city and some of the internationally significant companies that were ''flying below the radar''.
While most of the public relations work was positive, Ms Hellyer had also dealt with some crisis PR - something every company should have a plan in place for, she said.
Most staff had been University of Otago graduates - where she gained a marketing degree - and had stayed in touch, which was now ''starting to come back in another way''.
It was former employee Claire Jackson, a finalist last year in TVNZ's marketing awards for her work on the Hidden Dunedin campaign, and now working for the British Government, who was unhappy with the work of a London agency and asked Ms Hellyer if she would be interested in pitching for some work.
Glow got a contract for the National Citizens Service which assists 16 and 17-year-olds with their personal development, and more work from it was expected.
Staff became like family and there were debates about ''tiny things'' - like millimetres, point sizes and degrees of colour - ''but that's where perfection comes from and good enough is not good enough''.
As the company developed, capability would be added but she never wanted to get too big because she believed that could compromise quality and attention to detail.
While larger companies might have a lot of extra capacity, it all came down to ideas and creativity, she said.
Dunedin was a beautiful city with lots of potential and she believed there was optimism in the business sector.
Businesses like ADInstruments and Escea were doing ''really interesting things'' on an international scale.
Ms Hellyer has been involved with the Audacious business challenge for about five years and is a judge in this year's competition.
The ideas were always interesting and there were some great ones in this year's competition. She encouraged students to think about both the practical aspects of running a business and the financial side.
